In the aftermath of the Freedom Convoy, we must fight to uproot the systemic and legislated ways by which life continues to become increasingly unsafe for Ottawa’s disabled residents. We were not safe then. We are not safe now.

Language is one of the tools that marginalized people have the power to shape and reclaim. It can be a site of exploration, education, and resistance. So what about disability?

It’s time to stop giving Freedom Convoy supporters the benefit of the doubt.

While the immediate danger of the occupation is gone, the sense of abandonment for me is remains. Because the Premier announced this week a total roll back of safety protocols including masking.

We need to break up with our current fare-based transit model and the pandemic has made this abundantly clear.

When I think about September 11, I think about two young men: Chris* and Carlo. One of them I grew up with. The other, I’ve never met but have become intimately familiar with his untimely death. Both were killed in 2001, an ocean apart—one in Ontario, one in Genoa, Italy.

Self accountability is the first step in creating a broader language and landscape in which transformative justice can thrive.

Canada will remain ill-equipped to find appropriate and equitable language to address the damage done by our settler colonial state until we have a media system capable of handling this level of nuance.

On behalf of the Riverside Park Community Association, I spearheaded the new Official Plan response detailing the community’s concerns with the City’s plan for future development in our area and beyond.

2SLGBTQ+ folks have Pride events, yes. We also have candlelight vigils. Most notably, we have an annual event to honour and hold grief for our transgender community members who have been killed because of transphobia and transmisogyny.

Canada’s news media aren’t to blame for the pro-oil caravan that clogged Wellington Street, but how journalists, producers and editors choose to report on it is entirely their responsibility.